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Regulation, rules and compliance requirements are increasingly tangling businesses up in red tape, despite the efforts of politicians. The latest option for the printing industry to consider is the EU Eco-label, which was launched in August 2012. Thanks to the efforts of Intergraf, the European association of printing industry associations, the label’s requirements are not completely beyond the bounds of reason for the printing industry.

Colour aficionados, Pantone, has announced its colour of the year for 2013, described as “a lively, lush, radiant green … sophisticated and luxurious”. Pantone also describe it as “the colour of beauty and new life” and for the graphic arts industry green is an especially poignant choice, because green is the new black.

With Kyoto about to expire and the main outcomes of Copenhagen withering, hopes were high for the recently-concluded Doha round of climate change talks. And there were some exciting outcomes. The big news is the “loss and damage” agreement for countries suffering as a result of climate change. They will be able to claim compensation from major polluters including Europe, the US and China.

Thanks to Agfa for pointing us at a recent article in the New York Times looking at the amount of energy the Internet consumes. Facebook, the main subject of the article, has to support over one billion users so the energy required for its servers is stupendous. So how can the emissions on that energy be quantified? Not a simple question, but one that has to start somewhere.

At the recent Carbon Challenge Event sponsored by BSI in London, Dr. Michele Galatola, Product Team Leader, DG Environment, of the European Commission presented plans to “establish a common methodological approach to enable Member States and the private sector to assess, display and benchmark the environmental performance of products, services and companies”.